Retained tampons are the objects most commonly left inside of a woman's vagina. It is not uncommon for a woman who suffers from a retained tampon to experience foul smelling discharge and abdominal and/or pelvic pain, dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse), dysuria (painful urination), and palpable pelvic or vulvar masses. These symptomatic women may additionally experience fever, other constitutional symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and a loss of appetite. Women afflicted with these symptoms visit their primary care physicians, gynecologists and emergency rooms, only to be embarrassingly diagnosed with a retained tampon.
A pelvic infection from a retained tampon can result in a retrograde infection in the uterus as well as in the fallopian tubes and ovaries. This type of serious pelvic infection can result in scar tissue and adhesion formation which may make an otherwise fertile woman infertile.
The most serious result of a retained tampon or a tampon left in for a longer-than-recommended period of time is that of a serious pelvic infection that can result in death from Toxic Shock Syndrome.
Given the fact that tampon strings may enter the vagina, become displaced posteriorly near the rectum, and become lost within the crevices and folds of the vulva—which can become redundant with childbearing, age and weight gain—simple self-examination may make it difficult to ascertain whether or not a tampon has been retained. The length of time that a tampon has been left inside of a woman is a consistent variable that is present in the majority of cases of Toxic Shock Syndrome.
Women forget that they have tampons in place. If the tampon capacity is exceeded, the excess menses flows, unimpeded from the vagina, to soil the user's clothing. The flow variations throughout the menstrual period do cause problems regarding how long to use or to wear a tampon.
Bypass leakage is usually not predictable by the user's habitual wearing time. Therefore, a woman is sometimes in a quandary as to how long to wear the tampon during the varying menstrual flow days.
Larger and more absorbent tampons permit a woman to change tampons less often. These more absorbent tampons are the ones that are most associated with the occurrence of Toxic Shock Syndrome.
Several patents and patent applications describe tampons having indicators for alerting the user that the absorbent capacity of the pledget is exhausted. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,506,958 and 6,596,919, (both to Williams), U.S. Pat. No. 8,198,504 (Glaug et al.), and US 2004/0064116 (Arora et al.) are representative. None of these references describe a mechanism for alerting the user that a certain amount of time has elapsed since the tampon was inserted into the vagina. For example, the '958 patent describes a tampon 5 having an indicator 20 in contact with an absorbent pledget 10, in which the indicator contains a signal layer 16 sandwiched between an inner layer 14 and an outer layer 8. To prevent premature activation of the signal layer due to contact with moisture inherently present in the vagina, the outer layer is hydrophobic. The reference does not disclose a time-based means for activating the signal layer; rather, the signal layer is activated once it is exposed to menstrual fluid, when the pledget is at or near its absorptive capacity. The tampon described in the '919 patent operates in a similar manner, but the signal layer is located on or in the tampon removal string.